Foster calls time on stellar refereeing career to join FA

Cheryl Foster was appointed an MBE in 2024

Cheryl Foster has called time on her ground-breaking refereeing career to take up a new role with the Football Association.

Foster, 44, began refereeing at the end of an equally successful playing career, during which she won three league titles with Liverpool and 63 Wales caps.

She quickly established herself as a talented official and was added to Fifa's international list of referees in 2015 and promoted to Uefa's elite list five years later.

Career highlights include taking charge of matches at the finals of Women's Euro 2022 and the 2023 Women's World Cup.

Foster became Wales' first World Cup referee in 45 years when she took charge of Brazil's 4-0 win against Panama in Adelaide in 2023.

During the same year she took charge of the Women's Champions League final between Barcelona and Wolfsburg in Eindhoven.

Domestically, Foster broke new ground in becoming the first woman to referee in the JD Cymru Premier in 2018.

She was included in the King's birthday honours list last summer for services to association football and women's sport.

Foster will also give up her teaching job to take up a full-time senior position with the FA, where she will oversee refereeing pathways.

"It's a very tough decision. My footballing career has spanned a long time, both as a player and as a referee, and it's quite difficult to think that I won't be doing either of them ever again," she said.

"I've not retired, that's a big word. The English FA have been really supportive in that they know how much Wales and the progression of referees in Wales means to me. So you will still see me around, supporting the JD Cymru Premier VAR project and on the sidelines watching and coaching.

"I'm really excited though and can't wait to get started."